Lezhnytsia, “Chub” site – an example of functioning of a settlement microregion of the funnel beaker culture in Ukraine

Abstract

The aim of this article is an attempt to reconstruct the settlement network and settlement conditions for the Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) site «Chub» in Lezhnytsia near Ivanychi, in the Volhynian Upland. The excavation research carried out in this place in 1933-1934 and in 1962 uncovered the vast FBC settlement with stable dwelling and farm buildings (7 immovable constructions in total). The collection of movable artefacts allows us to relate the functioning of the settlement to the last quarter of the fourth thousandBC and makes it parallel with the sites type Gródek II, Zymne II in the Volhynian Upland and Vynnyky, site «Lysivka» and Mali Hrybovychi, site «Chorna Hora» in Roztocze. Due to the amount of exploration studies and information obtained about the microregion around Lezhnytsia, it is one of the best archaeologically recognized areas in Ukraine. Favourable environmental conditions (soil, river network system) and the presence of natural resources (flint and copper) had a great impact on the settlement concentration there. Speaking ofthe sites, their various functions have been discovered (settlements, camps, traces of economic activity, mass finds of flint artefacts). Regarding the preserved layout of the FBC settlement points around Lezhnytsia, certain features of spatial organization can be found. As for the central parts of the analyzed area, there are settlements together with a large number of single finds («treasures» of flint blades) in their vicinity, as well as smaller settlements. They are accompanied by small sites that were probably only used occasionally or temporally. These systems resemble structures known from other areas of Ukraine (Vynnyky, Zymne) and the upper Vistula basin of that period. The TRB communities living in the Lezhnytsia region, due to the network of trade connections, played an important role in the cultural transformations in the fourth thousand BC. Their effect was the distribution of local West Volhynian flint of the Turonian period to the western regions of the TRB range (i.e. to the Vistula basin) and the cultural elements related to the Baden culture in eastern areas (a central part of the Horyn basin). Key words: Funnel Beaker Culture, Volhynian Upland, microregional studies.